story openings

What Soap Operas Can Teach Us about Writing

April 23, 2013 Writing Stuff
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I don’t watch soap operas, but a bizarre conversation tangent (in other words, a perfectly normal conversation for me) triggered my thoughts comparing soap operas to novels. On the surface, they seem very similar. They both have characters, tension, and conflict. However, the more I thought about it, the more I saw differences. And those [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, information dump, Jami Gold, page turning stories, paranormal author, setting and description, story openings, tension

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Immersion Master Class with Margie Lawson: Part One — Guest: Melinda Collins

September 4, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Whoo boy, do I have a treat for you today. The lovely Melinda Collins recently returned from an Immersion Master Class with Margie Lawson, and she’s here today to share her experience. I’m playing this cool now, but it was a different story earlier. When I heard Melinda was going to a weekend-long writer’s retreat, [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, editing, feedback, guest blogs, information dump, Jami Gold, Margie Lawson, organized, paranormal author, story openings, The Bookshelf Muse, workshops

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3 Reasons to Love the Writing Community

June 12, 2012 Random Musings
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I’ve had a lot to be thankful for lately.  My family and I got away for a fun vacation, my klutziness didn’t result in too many injuries out in the middle of nowhere, and I survived being without internet access for much of the time. *smile* I was also reminded—again—how awesome the writing community is.  During [...]

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Tagged as: blogging, feedback, Jami Gold, Kristen Lamb, life balance, paranormal author, point of view, social media, story openings, Twitter, voice, workshops

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Has Writing Made Your Life…Strange?

May 24, 2012 Writing Stuff
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We writers can be a strange lot.  We live in our heads, we talk to imaginary characters, we rejoice when we think of horrible things to do to said characters, and we plot out perfect crimes, alien invasions, and the end of the world. But even beyond all that, writing affects our life in other ways.  Maybe [...]

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Tagged as: Jami Gold, Jami is insane, muse, paranormal author, story openings, writers are insane

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Pitch Prep: What Makes a Great First Page?

January 5, 2012 Writing Stuff
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It was a dark and stormy blog post.  *snicker* We’re continuing to prepare for the January 10-16th Pitch Your Shorts pitch session by tackling the issue of story openings.  (Check out Tuesday’s post for everything there is to know about pitching.) While the purpose of a pitch is to get a request, the purpose of a story’s [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, Edittorrent, feedback, information dump, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, page turning stories, paranormal author, pitch session, story openings, tension

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Are All Cheap Ebooks Crap?

December 20, 2011 Random Musings
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In my last post, I asked how much people would be willing to pay for ebooks.  Most comments agreed with my thoughts: Ebooks should be less expensive than paper books because of DRM, ownership, quality, and physicality issues.  What surprised me, however, was the number of people turned off by $0.99 ebooks. The comment section [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, authors, branding, ebooks, ereader, feedback, Jami Gold, Kindle, paranormal author, self-publishing, social media, story openings

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Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

September 15, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Artists of every type find inspiration all around them, and writers are no exception.  Ideas might come in the form of a dream, a “what if” question, an overheard conversation, etc. Those are all fairly normal sources of inspiration.  Personally, I’ve been inspired by dreams, “what if”s, an 80′s music video, a mutation of another [...]

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Tagged as: feedback, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, listening to characters, muse, page turning stories, paranormal author, romance novels, story openings, story seed

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The Green Lantern Movie: How *Not* to Plot a Story

July 5, 2011 Writing Stuff
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I recently saw the Green Lantern movie.  I know, I know.  The reviews were terrible, but I often enjoy turn-brain-off movies.  This fun-but-dumb superhero action flick definitely fit the bill. But the real entertainment came after the movie, as my family and I analyzed why this superhero movie failed compared to other recent titles.  Where did this [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, antagonist, information dump, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, page turning stories, paranormal author, risk, story openings, tension

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Milestone Contest – Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

June 28, 2011 News
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My one-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th.  The occasion has me doing something I don’t normally do: math.  Eek! This is my 101st blog post, and during that time, this blog has passed 100 Google Friend Connect followers, 250 RSS subscribers, and 1500 comments (not including mine).  I know those numbers look small [...]

Tagged as: beta reader, blogging, branding, critique partners/groups, feedback, giveaway, grammar, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, paranormal author, story openings, website

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Have You Posted Your Work Online?

June 14, 2011 News
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Some people post their work online all the time.  Photographers have Shutterstock.  Artists have deviantART.  Non-fiction authors often base their books on their blog posts. What about fiction authors?  That’s a little trickier.  We’re not talking about flash fiction, blog hop entries, and the like here.  If we limit the discussion to novels—our babies—it’s harder [...]

Tagged as: blogging, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, Kristen Lamb, listening to characters, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, story openings, The Resurrected, writing contests

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